Moong Dal Vada

This is an easy to make vada and very tasty item
Ingredients:

1. split moong dal- 1cup(approximately 200gms)
2. Rice floor -1 cup
3.  green chilli- 4 nos(chop into tiny bits)
4.  ginger- 1pc(grated)
5.   salt- 1tsp
6.  asafoetida- 1/4 tsp
7.   1 onion(finely chopped)
8. 1/4 cup coriander leaves 

Method:
Wash the moong dal well and after adding 1 cup water, pressure cook for 4 whistles. After the dal cools, add 1 cup rice floor, chopped chillies, asafoetida, chopped onion and coriander leaves. Hand mix all these together to a paste. Make lemon size balls, flatten to vada shapes and deep fry in oil to a golden brown colour. Now moong vadas are ready. Taste with coconut chutney or tomato sause.

Note: Moong dal vada absorbs little excess oil and this can be pat dried in paper towel.


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:

Tava Naan

Ingredients:

• Self rising flour - 3 cups
• 2 tsp Rapid rising yeast (fleischmann's yeast)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp oil
• Water 1/2 to 3/4 cup

Heat 1/2 cup water in microwave for 40 secs. Add yeast to the water and stir it. Now, sift the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl, add the yeast-water and oil to it. Take a spatula to make it into a soft ball. If it is too sticky add more flour. If the yeast-water is not enough add milk or yogurt or even water as needed. Take few drops of oil and spread it gently over the dough. Wet a paper napkin and spread it over the bowl. Let it sit for few hours. Wait upto four hours for the dough to double up in size.

Take a liberal pinch of dough and flour it to prevent it from sticking to rolling pin. Roll it like how you do roti. Now begin heating your tava and add cook it like roti. Oil is not needed. You may butter it after taking it from Tava.

This is lot easier to make than rotis. I may venture out to stuffing and baking like puffs or even adding turmeric, onion or garlic or mint to make masaala Naan on tava.

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Deepavali Special - Besan Ladoo

Ingredients:
1. Channa dhal 2 cups(soak for 4 - 5 hours)
2. Sugar 1 - 1.25 cups
3. Cardomom 11
4. Nutmeg powder a pinch
5. Saffron 4 or 5
6. Ghee
7. Almond slices
8. Raisin

Drain water from Channa dhal. Grind this to a coarse mixture and add it to a glass bowl. Add a teaspoon of ghee and mix it. Microwave the mixture for 2 minutes. They mix it thoroughly. Microwave the mixture for 2 minutes. Let it cool for little bit. The mixture would be cooked and be clumpy. Try to seperate the clumps with your fingers. If it is hard use the food processor to reduce the mixture to rava consistency.  Now heat a pan and add 1/2 tsp of ghee. Add the mixture to it and add  sugar, cardomom, nutmeg and roasted almond slices / raisins. Stir it for few minutes till it gets slightly sticky. Now after it cools down - roll it with your hands.

These ingedients are enough to make 30 ladoos(small).

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Deepavali special - Onion Sambar

Ingredients:
Vegetables:
1. Onion (1)
2. Tomato (1)
3. Curry leaves (few)

Sambar base:
4. Iyengar Sambar powder(2 tsp)
5. 777 Sambar powder (1 tsp)
6. Tamarind paste(Lakshmi) - 3/4 tsp
7. Salt
8. Turmeric Powder pinch
9.  Asafoetida pinch
10. Toor dhal (cooked)

Seasoning:
11. Oil 1 tsp
12. Fenugreek seeds few

Begin by heating oil and adding fenugreek seeds. Add cut Onion and saute till it becomes brown then add 3 cups of water. Now add a pinch turmeric powder, asafoetida, sambar powder, salt to taste, tamarind paste and curry leaves. At this point add tomato too . Let it boil for few minutes. Then add the cooked dhal to it and let it simmer for some time. If it gets too watery add fried gram / besan / rice flour. Alternatively adding potatos/ yellow pumpkin to sambar will help maintain sambar consistency.

Gonkura Thokku

Among the pickles and thokkus of Andhra Pradesh two items stand out. The first is avakkai and the close second is Gonkura. These two items are 'must' as starters in any Andhra meal. Gonkura as a green has health benefits too carrying lot of iron and calcium. The secret of preparing the gonkura thokku is attempted in this page.:

Ingredients
Gonkura leaves-  1 bunch
Red chilli-            25
Fenugreek           1/2 tsp
Mustard              30gms 
Salt                     4 tsp    
Onion                  1(big)
Garlic(optional)   6 cloves
Til oil                  100 gms
Turmeric Pwdr    1/2 tsp
Jaggery               2 tsp

Method
First pluck out the gonkura leaves from the bunch. The leaves so collected must be washed thoroughly in water. Sqeeze the water gently and let it dry on a clean and dry cloth so the leaves are free of moisture. Chop the onion into small pieces. Separately fry the mustard and fenugreek seeds.After they splutter, keep aside. Saute the red chilli, adding 2 tsp oil. Powder the fried mustard-fenugreek-chilli mixture in a dry grinder.
Now, heat the  til oil in a pan , add 2 tsp mustard seeds- after it splutter add the chopped onion, fry till golden brown. Now add the clean and dry gonkura leaves and saute for five minutes. Add turmeric powder-1/2 tsp, jaggery powder- 2 tsp, salt- 4 tsp and mix the contents thoroughly. Finally add the powdered chilli-mustard-fenugreek masala and mix well. Cool the gonkura thokku and bottle for storage.

Kozhukkattai Modakam or Stuffed Rice Dumplings

Kozhukkattai (Tamil), Modakam or Stuffed Rice Dumplings

This delicasy is mostly prepared on Vinayaka Chathurthi and on special occassions meant to propitiate the elphant headed god. This offering is believed to be specially liked by the lord among all other Ney vedyas. The secret of making this item lies in making the outer rice pouch and can be done well if following an easy process. Step by step procedure is attempted in this article.

1. Ingredients

• Rice 200gms(for making the outer pouch)
• Coconut grated 100gms(coconut poornam)
• Jaggery-25gms
• Elachy- 2nos
• White til- 100gms(for til poornam)
• Jaggery- 25gms
• Elachy- 2nos
• Channa dal 100gms, toor dal- 50gms, red chilli-3, asafoetida-1/4 tsp, salt- 1/2 tsp, lemon juice- 2tsp, grted coconut- 2 tsp, curry & coriander leaves( For Dal poornam)

Method for outer pouch or choppu

Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes. Wash and rinse the rice and grind the rice to a smooth paste adding 1/2 cup water. The consistency should be neither too thick nor too thin but should be medium. In a sauce pan add 1/4 cup water, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tsp cooking oil , heat all these adding the ground rice paste. Stir the contents till the rice paste cooks to a ball. Add little water if necessary. The dough will be opaquey and will be ready for making the choppu or outer pouch. Keep aside for 10 minutes.

Method for Coconut poornam:

Put the grated coconut and jaggery in a pan with little water stir fry to a halva like paste. Add elachy powder. Filling for coconut modakam is ready

Method for til(sesame) poornam:

In a dry pan fry  the tiil it splutter, add jaggery and elachy grind to a powder in a mixie. Til Poornam or filling is ready

Method forDal or Paruppu poornam

Soak the channa-toor dals for 30 minutes, rinse and grind adding coconut, red chilli, curry leaves, asafoetida, ginger and salt. Add no water and grind to a coarse paste

Now rub oil in idly plate steam the above mix like idly. After it cools add lemon juice and coriander.

Shaping the modakam or kozhukkattai:

Now take a sppon of rice dough. Rub your fingers with a couple of drops of oil shape the dough into a cup like shape and fill the three vsarieties of poornams as per your choice. Arrange them in idly pan and steam for 5-10 minutes without weight.

Now the modakams are ready. The above ingredients are sufficient to make 30-40 modakams(medium size)

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